It was last January, when I'd just finished a charity(慈善)and was on the train back home, that I put down my phone and started writing thank-you notes to people who had helped.
When I got off the train, I felt amazingly good. The next day, I wrote more thank-yous and the same feeling of happiness hit me again. I suddenly had the idea: Why not keep on doing thisfor every day of the year?
To keep on task, I decided to pick out a different theme for each month. January was charity.
February would be neighbors, I decided. And I thought of a number of names right away: the owner of our local bookstore, who let me and my little son in before the store opened and offered to play his favorite songs; our babysitter, who dropped off a bag of old board games for our kids to play;….
While wring the notes, I realized how often I had spent my time on the phone moving from app to app, appreciating(欣赏)other people's lives. Writing thank-you notes allowed me the time to do something different, paying more attention to my own life.
In the following months, I wrote to my friends, doctors, teachers and parenting role models. In July, my "food" month, I wrote to Julie, who used to cook at my favorite restaurant. It went like this:
Dear. Julie,
I've been finding myself missing you lately. Thank you for hosting and cooking beautiful and thoughtful food. Jake and I will never forget when you sent out biscuits shaped into the number VI for our sixth anniversary (周年纪念日). We talk about it every year.
Thank you. We miss you.
Love,
Gina
I was happy to receive a note back from her. Julie replied, "I don't think I've ever received such a touching letter before. I'm going through a hard time right now, and this helps. "
On December 31, I wrote my last card—to Jake, my husband, and our two kids. And I took a picture of us, so I could remember the feeling welling up inside me. Gratitude.
